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Thinking about Pat’s title ’The Way Up’. ...... is it an expression of optimism that the future of mankind, or just
us in America, will be very positive. What was Pat thinking in 2005,?? Since then we have had the great
recession, followed by real hope, and now ..... ?????? Anyways, I liked the album and the concert, but I’m
feeling depressed these days for some reason. The Way Up is a rocky road. ...

Definitely strong minimalist influences in The Way Up if not in other Metheny albums. Remember that Pat
performed the award winning Electric Counterpoint for Steve Reich back in the late 80s. The Kronos Quartet
played that for years. And of course Pat’s Last Train Home in The Road to You(1993). Good observation,
Naut.

tiny_timJun 08 2018at 7:16 AM

The last 3 minutes of The Way Up....also evokes the last moments of the last Planet in Holst’s The Planets...Neptune...simply other worldly....

nautJun 07 2018at 6:33 PM

The last three minutes of "The Way Up"; the last three minutes of "Music for 18 Musicians." Echoes and reverberations....

yossarianApr 24 2018at 7:03 PM

I reckon it means whatever we want to take from it. It’s a kind of message of hope I feel. The music is incredible. I
suppose Part 3 ends with that fantastic uplifting ecstatic moment with Richard Bona’s voice but then there’s a reprise
of the somewhat mournful, reflective theme. Classic Metheny/Mays.

saxondMar 05 2018at 2:00 PM

The Way Up was not necessarily an optimistic statement at the time. You can look at the interviews and press
materials released with it, and Pat was concerned with a lot of things happening, both in music (expressed as
"packaging" and "branding") and in the world as well. As I listen to it, I always feel the music, in its various parts,
moves from simple to complex, into almost chaos and searching in the middle, and finally into a spiritual
resolution at the very end, with a "climbing" motif moving slowly up the scale in a positive way. Listen to how the
first movement seems to hearken back to old and simpler times with its basic theme. It returns to that theme as it
evolves and finally revolves at the end. This is one you really need to listen to as one piece to fully appreciate. I
have a complex relationship with The Way Up myself, longing often for the simple beauty of albums such as Still
Life (Talking) yet feeling Pat challenging me to delve deeper, to follow The Way Up to thinking and feeling and
music more profound.

nautFeb 08 2018at 8:27 PM

patsfan, I either read or heard on the radio Pat talking about this. He was responding or reacting to the brevity that so much music has these days. He even mentioned that ring tones have their own chart somewhere, maybe in Billboard. As for your feeling depressed, hang in there partner. You’re not the only one; it’s endemic when there’s a moronic man-child (stress "child") trying to run things, leaving a wake of havoc and stupidity in his waves. A military parade to stroke his banal ego is the latest imbicilic, wasteful idea we might have to suffer through. Oh lord....

molesoulsandalFeb 08 2018at 5:46 PM

’the way up’ is one of the most evolved albums yet made. it may take 40 or 50 more years for everyone else to ’catch up w/it’. that’s just what i think, anyhoo.
also, earlier today i heard ’san lorenzo’, which i hadn’t heard in a while. what a piece of music! the very first song on the very first ’group’ album . . . . . what a kick-off!